Top Ten Curb Your Enthusiasm Episodes

Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of the most sophisticated comedies of our time. It is a more subtle comedy than Seinfeld, another David creation, with the anti-social behavior centered on one man, rather than a group. The ultimate in creating comedy from uncomfortable situations, Curb Your Enthusiasm doesn’t rely on a script. It has basic storyline and the comedy is all derived from one making every normal social interaction difficult. After 6 seasons and 60 episodes, here are my top ten episodes, so far.

10) “Porno Gil”, Season 1 Episode 3:
Larry offends a man at the driving range, which comes back to haunt him while driving around looking for a party he was invited to by a retired porn actor, Gil Bang. Larry and Cheryl arrive to find that it is dinner party. Cheryl is repulsed by the conversation and Larry angers his host’s wife by not removing his shoes and then damaging her property. He is also sent on a mission to retrieve Jeff’s porn stash before Susie finds it.
Best moment: Larry is caught with the porn by Jeff’s parents.

9) “The Freak Book”, Season 6 Episode 55:
Larry takes a limo to Ted Danson’s birthday party. Larry gives Danson a book of pictures of freaks as a present and invites the driver into the party, where his drunkenness causes he and Larry to be ejected with the book. Larry ends up taking over the limo duties the next day and has to chauffeur John McEnroe, to the very concert he himself was supposed to go to. Larry gets the two of them booted for the show because of the freak book.
Best moment: Larry and McEnroe looking at the freak book and cracking up together.

8) “Opening Night”, Season 4 Episode 40:
Larry is flying to New York for his lead role, in Mel Brooks’ The Producers. Along the way he must try and sleep with his co-star before the Anniversary deal he made with Cheryl expires. During his stay, he has run-ins with co-star, David Schwimmer, a hotel doorman, a hotel repairman, a thief, a phallacio expert, and an angry tourist played by Stephen Colbert.
Best moment: His attempt to do a favor for a tourist (Colbert) and his wife.

7) “Krazee Eyez Killa”, Season 3 Episode 28:
Larry goes to Wanda’s engagement party and is privy to sexual exploits of her fiancé, rapper Krazee Eyez Killa. He tells Cheryl of his new friend’s infidelity and then tries to hide the fact that it was he that told from Krazee Eyez. Krazee Eyez happens to have a jacket that Larry is also trying to replace a jacket he needs to shoot a scene in the Martin Scorcese film he is in.
Best moment: Larry argues with a salesman after finding the jacket in a store.

6) “Kamikaze Bingo”, Season 5 Episode 44:
Larry offends and shames Cheryl’s art dealer, Yoshi, at lunch by inadvertently calling Yoshi’s kamikaze pilot father a “chicken”. After a dishonored Yoshi tries to commit suicide, Larry upsets Yoshi’s brother in-law, Kevin Nealon, by sticking around his house to finish a poker game. He also feels that the fix is in at his father’s nursing home Bingo game. Yoshi’s father is also at the home, and in the end, the bingo, Larry, and Yoshi’s dad, collide.
Best Moment: Larry and his friends try to justify, to themselves, trying to stick around to finish the poker game.

5) “The Weatherman”, Season 4 Episode 34:
Larry is convinced that the weatherman is purposely saying it will rain, in order to clear the golf course for himself. His tooth plaque becomes a matter of discussion with everyone that he sees becomes of a gossip dental assistant. A bad back and an argument with a foreign man cause him great embarrassment and ridicule at the Funkhouser testimonial.
Best moment: Larry, hobbling with a cane, storms on to the golf course and accuses the weatherman of lying, and his dentist of ruining his shirt.

4) “The Seder”, Season 5 Episode 47:
Larry befriends a sex offender in his neighborhood over mutual interest in golf. He and Cheryl host a Passover Seder for friends and family, and Larry invites his new friend. A series of awkward moments ensue at the uncomfortable Seder, including him accusing a plastic surgeon of stealing his newspaper.
Best moment: Larry confronts the doctor at the dinner table and again as he is leaving.

3) “Club Soda and Salt”, Season 3 Episode 23:
Larry is jealous of Cheryl flirtation with her handsome new male tennis partner, Brad. Brad is performing at “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” and Larry and Cheryl attend. Hoping to find a new chef, the group goes out to dinner afterward, where a previous run-in with a store salesgirl comes back on Larry. An old restaurant trick with stains is used several times throughout with hilarious results.
Best moment: Larry encounters Brad during the show in the bathroom and refuses to play along.

2) “Shaq”, Season 2 Episode 18:
This episode is the true depiction of Larry’s anti-social behavior. He is having dinner with two other couples, at the type of forced social gathering that he cannot stand. At the dinner he asks two separate, special favors by his dinner acquaintances. Later Larry goes to the Laker’s basketball game with Richard Lewis and accidentally trips Shaquille O’Neal while stretching. At first it seems horrible, everyone in Los Angeles hates him, but he comes to realize that this isn’t such a bad thing. His in-laws end their visit, the two favors he was asked are rescinded for fear of being associated with him, and Shaq forgives him. Soon after he is forgiven, the world has return to normal, sending Larry back into his uncomfortable position in life.
Best moment: At the coffee shop, Larry has his last favor canceled and buys the whole store coffee and snacks.

1) “Trick or Treat”, Season 2 Episode 13:
Every moment of this episode is a classic. Larry and Cheryl go to the movie premier of their handicapped friend, Cliff Cobb. At dinner beforehand, Larry unknowingly proposes an affair to Cliff’s wife, and offends Cliff by ordering a Cobb Salad with adjustments. At the show Larry offends a man outside by whistling Wagner, and once again offends Cliff by yawning during the show. When he rebuffs two costume-less trick or treaters, his house is vandalized and toilet papered. One of the vandal turns out to be the daughter of the man offended by his whistling. In the end, Larry gets his sweet revenge.
Best moment: Larry’s confrontation with Cliff about his alleged infidelity.

There you have it, my ten best Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes. One of the all-time great television shows.